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Spinach, sun-dried tomato and feta muffins

Recipe makes 12 muffins. Double the quantity and freeze a bunch for a quick and easy breakfast when you’re short on time. Doubling works better so you use a whole 600mL container of buttermilk.

150g frozen spinach, thawed
2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup plain flour
pinch cayenne pepper
2 eggs
300mL buttermilk
100g butter, melted
50g sun dried tomatoes
150g feta – greek or danish, whatever you prefer

Preheat oven to 200ºC
Rehydrate the sun-dried tomatoes by boiling in water for 3 min, chop into smaller pieces
Squeeze any excess water from the spinach
Sift the flours into a large bowl with the cayenne pepper
Beat together the eggs, butter and buttermilk and add the spinach and mix into the flour
Add the sun-dried tomatoes and crumbled feta and fold together
Spoon into muffin tray and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden
Leave in the tin for 5 minutes and then use a rubber spatula to gently prise out
Leave to cool on wire rack.

Muffins can be frozen for later, just pop in the microwave for 1 minute from frozen!

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Mexican Rice

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • ½ red capsicum, diced
  • 1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
  • 1 cup long grain white rice
  • ½ teaspoon cumin
  • salt, to taste
  • 250mL tomato sauce (passata)
  • 250mL vegetable stock
  • optional: finely chopped coriander for garnish

Method

Wash and drain the rice.

Heat the oil in a large deep pan over medium heat.

Add the onions, capsicum, garlic and jalapeno pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the onions become translucent.

Add the rice and cook, stirring regularly, until it’s lightly toasted and golden brown, about 3-4 minutes. If it’s not golden, keep going. It’s important that it be toasted properly.

Add in the salt, cumin, tomato sauce and stock, then stir everything together.

Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer until rice is cooked all the way through, about 15-20 minutes.

Remove the rice from the heat and stir to separate the grains.

Garnish with chopped coriander.

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Best Guacamole

No life story, no history of the avocado, just the recipe.

Ingredients

  • 4 ripe avocados
  • 1 small red onion
  • 1 small red chilli
  • 2 roma tomatoes
  • 2 tbs coriander (when chopped)
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 lime
  • salt & pepper grinder (around 1/4 tsp of both)
  • 1 tbs chopped jalapeno peppers if you want to give it a kick and have some handy

Method

Finely chop the onion, the tomatoes, the garlic, the chilli and the coriander. Grate the rind from the lime. Juice the lime. Peel and mash the avocados to your desired level of chunkiness. Mix everything together.

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Roast Pumpkin Risotto

Ingredients

  • 500g butternut pumpkin
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 cup Arborio rice
  • 1L Massel chicken-style stock (it’s vegan, and I prefer the cubes, but the powder is good too)
  • 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
  • 2 tsp Moroccan seasoning
  • Olive oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C

Peel and cut the pumpkin into 1-2cm cubes and place in a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and brush to coat. Sprinkle with 1tsp of the Moroccan seasoning. Place in oven and bake for around an hour.

While pumpkin is cooking, prepare your other ingredients. Wash the rice. Make up the stock in a large saucepan and leave to simmer on very low heat. Fill the kettle and boil in case more liquid is required. Finely chop the onion and garlic.

When the pumpkin has been baking for around half an hour, start making the risotto. In a large saucepan, add the onion and around 1 tbsp olive oil. Cook on low heat until transparent. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the dry Arborio rice, a little more oil (1/2 tbsp) and cook for 2 minutes, regularly stirring.

Add a ladle of stock to the rice and stir through. Stir the rice regularly to ensure it doesn’t stick to the saucepan. Once all the liquid is absorbed (no visible liquid bubbling), add another ladle of stock. Repeat until half the stock is used, always stirring regularly. Add the remaining Moroccan seasoning and half the Parmesan and stir through.

Continue adding stock and regularly stirring until the rice is fully cooked – use a fresh teaspoon to take out a couple of grains and let them cool a little before testing. The rice should not have a hard centre when fully cooked. If the stock is all consumed before the rice is fully cooked, refill the stock saucepan with hot water from the kettle. Don’t make up more stock, water is fine. Continue adding a ladle of liquid at a time and stirring, and test every few minutes to check if it’s fully cooked.

The pumpkin should finish baking around the same time the risotto is cooked. Mash around 1/3 of the pumpkin and stir through the risotto. If the pumpkin is done before the risotto is done, it’s good to add the mashed pumpkin before the risotto is finished. Fold through the remaining baked pumpkin and the rest of the Parmesan cheese.

Serves 4. Enjoy!

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Mexican vegetable cottage pie

Ingredients

Olive oil – 2tsp
Brown onion – 1 medium, finely chopped
Garlic – 2clove(s), crushed
Mexican Chilli powder – 2tsp
Tomato paste – 1tbs
Canned red kidney beans – 1 can
Canned black beans – 1 can
Canned pinto beans – 1 can
Canned corn kernels – 1 can
Vegetable stock cube – to make 1/2 cup (125ml) vegetable stock
Dried oregano – 1tsp
Orange sweet potato – ~800g, cut into 2cm pieces
Skim milk – 2tbs
Fresh coriander – 2tbs, leaves, to serve
Oil spray – 1 x 3 second spray

Instructions

  1. Chop sweet potato into 2cm cubes and roast at 180deg for 45-60 minutes or until cooked.
  2. Heat oil in a deep non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Cook onion, stirring, for 5 minutes or until softened. Add garlic, chilli powder and tomato paste and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until fragrant.
  3. Drain and rinse the corn kernels. Set aside.
  4. Drain the beans, setting aside approx 125ml (1/2 cup) of the Aquafaba (the viscous water) from the black beans and pinto beans.
  5. Mix beans together, set aside 1/3 of the beans and mash with a potato masher.
  6. Add beans, corn kernels, stock, aquafaba, mashed beans and oregano and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until thickened. Transfer to a 1.5 litre (6-cup) capacity ovenproof dish.
  7. Mash sweet potato in a large bowl with milk. Spoon mash over vegetable mixture and lightly spray with oil.
  8. Preheat grill on high. Grill pie for 5 minutes or until light golden. Serve sprinkled with fresh coriander leaves.